Saturday, July 26, 2014

Baltimore Activist Alert July 27 – July 29, 2014

"I speak as an American to the leaders of my own nation. The great initiative in this war is ours.
The initiative to stop it must be ours." - Martin Luther King Jr.

Friends, this list and other email documents which I send out are done under the auspices of the Baltimore Nonviolence Center. Go to www.baltimorenonviolencecenter.blogspot.com. If you appreciate this information and would like to make a donation, send contributions to BNC, 325 East 25th Street, Baltimore, MD 21218. Max Obuszewski can be reached at 410-366-1637 or mobuszewski [at] verizon.net.

2] – To obtain information how your federal legislators voted on particular bills, go to http://thomas.loc.gov/. Congressional toll-free numbers are 888-818-6641, 888-355-3588 or 800-426-8073. The White House Comment Email is accessible at http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/.

3] – THE ORGANIZING LIST will be the primary decision-making mechanism of the National Campaign of Nonviolent Resistance [NCNR]. It will be augmented by conference calls and possibly in-person meetings as needed. It will consist of 1 or 2 representatives from each local, regional, or national organization (not coalitions) that wishes to actively work to carry out the NCNR campaign of facilitating and organizing nonviolent resistance to the war in Iraq. To join the ORGANIZING List, please send your name, group affiliation, city and email address to mobuszewski at Verizon dot net. Different local chapters of a national organization are encouraged to subscribe.

THE NOTICES LIST will include only notices of NCNR actions and related information and is open to any interested person to subscribe. It will be moderated to maintain focus & will include periodic notices about getting involved in NCNR national organizing. To join the NOTICES List, send an email message to mobuszewski at Verizon dot net.

4] – You can help safeguard human rights and fragile ecosystems through your purchase of HOCOFOLA Café Quetzal. Bags of ground coffee or whole beans can be ordered by mailing in an order form. Also note organic cocoa and sugar are for sale. For more details and to download the order form, go to http://friendsoflatinamerica.typepad.com/hocofola/2010/02/hocofola-cafe-quetzal-order-form-2010.html. The coffee comes in one-pound bags.

Fill out the form and mail it with a check made out to HOCOFOLA on or before the second week of the month. Be sure you indicate ground or beans for each type of coffee ordered. Send it to Francine Sheppard at 5639B, Harpers Farm Rd., Columbia 21044. The coffee will arrive some time the following week and you will be notified where to pick it up. Contact Francine at 410-992-7679 or FrancineMSW@aol.com.

5] – The Maryland SPCA has wonderful companions waiting for you! Adopt one of them this July during the Summer Lovin' event! For the entire month, the adoption fees for all adult cats (regularly $55) and large, adult dogs (regularly $125) are waived. The $17 Pet ID Package and all regular adoption procedures still apply. Visit http://www.mdspca.org/adopt/howto/.

6] – GUTSY: Taking the Fear Factor Out of Feminism is a group exhibit of female artists whose work deals with feminist issues, themes, and aesthetics through Fri., Aug. 8 at Gallery CA, 440 East Oliver St. Call 410-528-9239 or http://galleryca.org.

7] – See the exhibit Human, Soul & Machine: The Coming Singularity, which
delves into the various ways technology affects lives through the perspective of inventors, futurists and 40 plus visionary artists. The intent is to bring new thoughts on artificial intelligence, robotics, genetics, nanotechnology, 3D printing, and big data, and you can see it through August 31 at the American Visionary Art Museum, 800 Key Hwy. Call 410-244-1900. Go to http://avam.org. A ticket costs $20.

8] - Usually, the Baltimore Ethical Society, 306 W. Franklin St., Suite 102, Baltimore 21201-4661, meets on Sundays, and generally there is a speaker and discussion from 10:30 AM to noon. On Sun., July 27, BES member Fred Compton will share his personal experiences “How Humanism Has Helped Me,” and then lead a discussion inviting others to share theirs. Call 410-581-2322 or email ask@bmorethical.org.

9] - Join the Kadampa Meditation Center for Peace and Pancakes on Sundays at 10:30 AM at KMC Maryland, 2937 North Charles St. All are invited to participate in guided meditation and chant praying for world peace. There will be a talk based on Buddhist thought followed by brunch. Call 410- 243-3837. Brunch is $5.

10] – On Sun., July 27 at 1 PM at Red Emma's Bookstore Cafe, 30 W. North Ave., Baltimore 21201, hear a Coffee Talk with a presentation about cooperative coffee farming in Sumatra with a roaster, Casey McKeel. And see how to cup Thread’s Permata Gayo coffee. Call 443-602-7585. Go to http://www.redemmas.org. Thread Coffee co-founder Casey McKeel spent two weeks in March 2014 visiting coffee farms in Sumatra, researching coffee trade and its impacts - both positive and negative - on communities. Casey will share a photo report back and interviews with farmers, looking at the dynamics of coffee trade on the ground in Sumatra.

11] – At the Conference Room, Shaw Library, 1630 7th St. NW, on Sun., July 27 at 2 PM, be a part of a discussion concerning the political importance of mobilizing people to go to New York City before corporate and governmental leaders arrive this September for the UN Climate Summit. System Change Not Climate Change together with the Global Climate Convergence will be laying the groundwork for an alternative summit, the New York City Climate Convergence. The objective is to build and strengthen an environmental movement that addresses the root causes of the climate crises--a social-economic system that values profits above people, planet and peace. As the corporate captured UN proposes false solutions like carbon trading and sets meager greenhouse reduction targets, this action will show the world what tackling global warming from the bottom up looks like. Go to https://www.facebook.com/events/762091697176312/.

12] – On Sun., July 27 at 7:30 PM at Red Emma's Bookstore Cafe, 30 W. North Ave., Baltimore 21201, Gerald Horne presents "The Counter-Revolution of 1776: Slave Resistance and the Origins of the United States of America" & "Race to Revolution: The U.S. and Cuba during Slavery and Jim Crow." The successful 1776 revolt against British rule in North America has been hailed almost universally as a great step forward for humanity. But the Africans then residing in the colonies overwhelmingly sided with London. In this trailblazing book, Horne complements his earlier celebrated Negro Comrades of the Crown, by showing that in the prelude to 1776, the abolition of slavery seemed all but inevitable in London, delighting Africans as much as it outraged slaveholders, and sparking the colonial revolt. In the prelude to 1776, some Africans join the British military, and anti-slavery sentiments were starting to ripen in Britain. And in the Caribbean, rebellious Africans were rising.

The histories of Cuba and the United States are tightly intertwined and have been for at least two centuries. In “Race to Revolution,” Horne examines a critical relationship between the two countries by tracing out the typically overlooked interconnections among slavery, Jim Crow, and revolution. Slavery was central to the economic and political trajectories of Cuba and the United States, both in terms of each nation’s internal political and economic development and in the interactions between the small Caribbean island and the Colossus of the North. He draws a direct link between the black experiences in two very different countries and follows that connection through changing periods of resistance and revolutionary upheaval. Black Cubans were crucial to Cuba’s initial independence, reinforcing radical politics within the black communities of both nations. This in turn helped to create the conditions that gave rise to the Cuban Revolution which, on New Years’ Day in 1959, shook the United States to its core. Go to http://www.redemmas.org. Call 443-602-7585.

13] -- There is a weekly Pentagon Peace Vigil from 7 to 8 AM on Mondays, since 1987, outside the Pentagon Metro stop. The next vigil is Mon., July 28, and it is sponsored by the Dorothy Day Catholic Worker. Email artlaffin@hotmail.com or call 202-882-9649. The vigil will be outside the Pentagon's south Metro entrance and in the designated "protest zone" behind bicycle fences across from the entrance to the Metro. By Metro, take Yellow Line and get out at the "Pentagon" stop. Do not go to the Pentagon City stop! Go up south escalators and turn left and walk across to protest area. By car from D.C. area, take 395 South and get off at Exit 8A-Pentagon South Parking. Take slight right onto S. Rotary Rd. at end of ramp and right on S. Fern St. Then take left onto Army Navy Dr. You can "pay to park" on Army Navy Dr., and there is meter parking one block on right on Eads St. Payment for both of these spots begin at 8 AM. No cameras are allowed on Pentagon grounds. Restrooms are located inside Marriott Residence Inn on corner of S. Fern and Army Navy Dr.

14] – The Marc Steiner Show airs Monday through Friday from 9 to 11 AM on WEAA 88.9 FM, The Voice of the Community, or online at www.weaa.org. The call-in number is 410-319-8888, and comments can also be sent by email to steinershow@gmail.com. All shows are also available as podcasts at www.steinershow.org.

15] – At the Institute for Policy Studies Conference Room, 1112 16th St. NW, Suite 600, on Mon., July 28 from noon to 1 PM, join the Institute for Policy Studies for an in-depth discussion on the underlying dynamics and root causes of the current invasion of Gaza. They'll discuss the latest news and developments and address questions! You can also participate by phone. Dial-in to listen only at 1-415-655-0059 with an access code at 592-768-385. RSVP to be part of the webinar at https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/6682311964551824898.

16] – On Mon., July 28 from noon to 1:30 PM, Dennis Ross, former special assistant to President Obama, Eric Edelman, former Undersecretary of Defense for Policy, Stephen Rademaker, former Assistant Secretary of State for International Security and Nonproliferation, and Ray Takeyh, Council on Foreign Relations, will examine "Final Deal with Iran: Outcomes and Next Steps” at JINSA, 1307 New York Ave., Large Conference Hall, 1st Floor, W DC 20005. The forum is sponsored by the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs. Visit https://events.r20.constantcontact.com/register/eventReg?oeidk=a07e9jllh694e4a1351.

17] – On Mon., July 28 from 3 to 5:15 PM, the Carnegie Endowment and Korea Economic Institute present "Nuclear Politics on the Korean Peninsula" with seven speakers at the Carnegie Endowment, 1779 Massachusetts Ave. NW, WDC. RSVP at http://carnegieendowment.org/events/forms/?fa=registration&event=4509.

18] – The Pledge of Resistance-Baltimore usually meets on Mondays at 7:30 PM, and the meetings take place at Max’s residence. The next meeting will be on Mon., July 28. The proposed agenda will include the appeal of the conviction of the CIA Five, anti-drone activities, including the arraignment of the NSA Three, Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Syria and Ukraine, bigotry on the border, Gaza and the Hiroshima-Nagasaki Commemoration. Call 410-366-1637 or email mobuszewski at verizon.net for directions.

19] – Bless the EPA Hearing on Carbon Pollution Safeguards on Tues., July 29 at 8:30 AM at EPA Headquarters, 1201 Constitution Ave. NW, WDC. Use the Federal Triangle Metro. The EPA has proposed the first-ever safeguards that would limit climate pollution from existing power plants, our nation's single greatest source of the heat-trapping pollution that is causing our earth to warm.

Gather with Creation Justice Ministries and Sojourners to kick off two full days of EPA hearings and to share blessings for this auspicious process and for over two dozen diverse religious leaders who will be offering testimony. Then, join hundreds of caring citizens and speak out at the EPA hearing to call for reducing climate pollution from the nation's power plants. RSVP program@gwipl.org.

20] – On Tues., July 29 from 9 AM to noon, join the National AIDS Housing Coalition at the 2014 National Conference on Ending Homelessness at the Renaissance Washington, D.C. Hotel, 999 Ninth St. NW. There will be a Community Listening Session on Addressing Homelessness through HIV/AIDS Housing: What’s working? What’s not? And why? Join HIV/AIDS housing and service providers, consumers, and officials to discuss successful models and challenges in fulfilling housing's promise as a powerful prevention and healthcare intervention for homeless people with HIV/AIDS. Email NAHC at nahc@nationalaidshousing.org to register. Go to http://www.endhomelessness.org/news/calendar/2014-national-conference-on-ending-homelessness.

21] – On Tues., July 29 at 10 AM at the U.S. Institute of Peace, 2301 Constitution Ave. NW, WDC 20037, the Latin America Working Group Education Fund, Washington Office on Latin America, and United States Institute of Peace are pleased to invite you to Colombia Peace Forum -- Peace Proposals from Victims of Colombia's Armed Conflict. It will feature Clara Rojas González, Colombian National Congress Representative, Aida Quilcué, director of Human Rights, Regional Indigenous Council of Cauca (CRIC), Deyis Margarita Carmona Tejada, spokeswoman, Peasants' Assembly of Cesar for Land Restitution, and José Antequera Guzmán, co-founder, Sons and Daughters of Memory and Against Impunity. This event will be webcast live at www.usip.org/webcasts. RSVP to Omar Martinez at 202-546-7010 or omartinez@lawg.org.

"The master class has always declared the wars; the subject class has always fought the battles. The master class has had all to gain and nothing to lose, while the subject class has had nothing to gain and everything to lose--especially their lives." Eugene Victor Debs